Oppression means a cruel or unjust treatment that it prolonged. Violent resistance means that people want change using harm and threatening death, non-violent resistance means that they protest in a peaceful way. Agency is the ability to choose the outcome of one’s own life. Oppressed people should use non-violent resistance to gain agency because some people that have used no violence have gotten agency. For example Malala Yousafzai who wants all children to get an education. Students at Fremont High School trying to clean and change their city by taking pictures of things that need to be changed and reporting them, and the people of Chibok that use no violence they use their words and protest to get back the girls that were kidnapped by Boko Haram.
First of all the document that I’m going to use supports my answer to the essay question because the people of Chibok are peacefully protesting without violence. This document is about the event that happened in Chibok, Borno, Nigeria where the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls. Some of the girls kidnapped where forced to carry out suicide bombings. This document is an excerpt from an article on the Washington Post’s website made by Kevin Sieff on April 14, 2016. The information is trustworthy because it is from a reliable website and they got the information from a primary source, like government officials. A quote that supports my evidence is, “ A young woman carrying a baby emerged Wednesday from the Nigerian bush with a story that began over two years ago: She was among the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted… The end of the women’s ordeal was likely to raise hope that others held by Boko Haram could find freedom… Pentagon flies unarmed drones to help track the Boko Haram.” This shows that oppressed people should use nonviolent resistance because if they would have violence Boko Haram would have killed all the girls. So that girl would have never been released and they wouldn’t have gotten closer to finding the girls. Also the unarmed drones also help because if Boko Haram would have felt threatened with armed drones they would also probably kill all the girls. That is why nonviolence helps gain agency.
Second of all the document that I am going to use supports my essay question because the students of Fremont High School want to make change by taking pictures of things that can be fixed around their city and reporting them on SeeClickFix. This document is about how freshman at Fremont High are making change in their environment by using SeeClickFix to try to get things like illegal dumping, graffiti, messed up sidewalks, and potholes. This document is pictures from the students posters of the status of their problems and how many are Open, Acknowledged, or Closed, created my Jason Muniz on April 27, 2018. The information on this document is trustworthy because it is new information and it is from the primary source. A quote from the document that supports my evidence is, “Closed: Graffiti- 1, Sidewalk- 0, Potholes- 2, Trash Dumping- 6.” There is also still 21 acknowledged sidewalk problems. This explains why oppressed people should use nonviolence resistance because instead of using violence to force the city to fix the problems the students would report it and they actually got some things fixed, to gain agency.
Third of all the final document that I’m going to use supports my essay question answer because it shows how Malala Yousafzai uses nonviolence to gain agency. This document is about a speech that Malala Yousafzai gave at the United Nations General Assembly talking about her struggles and what she is peacefully fighting for. This document is an excerpt from the speech given by Malala on July 21, 2013. The information from this document is trustworthy because it is right from the speech that she gave, so it is from a primary source. A quote from this document that supports my claim is, “Dear sisters and brothers, I am not against anyone. Neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I am here to speak for the right of education for every child. I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all the terrorists and extremists. I do not even hate the Talib who shot me.” This shows that oppressed people should use non violent resistance because she talks about not hating anyone, including the person that shot her in the head, and all she wants is education for every child so they can have agency.